Barrow Fumes As He Whips Up Supporters to Fight Fiercely
By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The Gambian leader Adama Barrow has maintained that no NPP member should harbour any fear as he urged his supporters to stand up firm and fight fiercely against any law-breaker.
“I would like to tell NPP members that you belong to the ruling party. You must not harbor any fear. You are the ruling party and you are the government. President Barrow cannot take care of all the issues. If anyone insults you and breaks the law, stand up firm and fight fiercely. People should fear us and not the other way round because we are the ruling party,” President Barrow recently said as he spoke at the inauguration of the NPP’s political bureau in Kerewan.
Earlier, the President promised to sack anyone bent on sabotaging his government.
“One of the speakers here spoke about the need for me to sack saboteurs in my government; civil servants opposing me and those slinging insults. I want to assure him that anyone found bent on sabotaging my government; derailing my programs would be sacked to go and beg for charity,” he underlined.
Meanwhile, according to President Barrow, no country can accommodate two presidents at the same time. He continued: “There must be one President at a time and Gambia’s President is President Barrow till 2026. If you are a leader of a political party or an organization, President Barrow is your president. Whatever problem they have, they run to our police station. If they fall sick, they go to our hospital. If they need documents, they come to the government. So, how can you be a President? That cannot happen and I will not condone it. We want our democracy to thrive but what others think cannot be accepted here. I will not accept it.”
Mr. Barrow opined that some opposition parties need to put their house in order instead of the usual Barrow bashings.
“Some opposition are talking about President Barrow but I beg, they have huge challenges in their parties. Let them leave President Barrow alone because it’s a well-established fact that President Barrow is the NPP leader, secretary general, and the flagbearer,” he explained.
“Therefore, those squabbling over who should carry the torch for their parties…Some say others are old and others say some are new entrants in the political space. Let them iron out those wrinkles on their parties. A new entrant or an old guard makes no difference to me. I’m prepared for anyone of them. It’s all the same,” stated Mr. Barrow.
According to President Barrow, all the noise from the political terrain was part of a quest for political power.
“All the noise brewing across the political landscape is as a result of the battle for political power but you [NPP] have succeeded in gaining power and so, you must latch onto it. NPP will be here for a century,” he maintained.
The President pointed out that his recent tour of the country was necessitated by, inter alia, the need to beam the spotlight on the un-noticed government development project to see how officials can respond to the needs of the contractors for a desired outcome and to inaugurate the five second-to-none health centers in Tumana, Jimara, Central Baddibu, Kiang and Jokadu.
“This type of project has never been executed in any stage of Gambia’s history from the country’s birth to colonial rule and the Jawara era to the Jammehdispensation. Therefore, we are accomplishing unprecedented projects. Nobody ever thought of seeing these dreams realized even myself but the Gambia’s prayers have been answered,” said Barrow.
“Some previous leaders were talking about transforming The Gambia to Dubai, the Silicon Valley and others were using other names. We did not coin any name but we say The Gambia would be second-to-none, in development terms,” he added.
